Councilman Nader says column wasn’t fair

Jeeves has continued to imply in his column (Nov. 24 News Messenger, page A9, Kathy Dorsey and Jeeves’ Scene to be Seen column) that I was failing to demonstrate leadership as a council member during the Aug. 23 tanker fire because I was not present for the emergency council meeting that day.
I would like to settle everyone’s minds regarding where I was and what I was doing that day.
I became aware of the tanker fire at 12:04 p.m. and immediately called the public services department at the airport as I assumed City Hall was evacuated and spoke with Mark Miller’s administrative aide, Paula Baldwin. She indicated she would have Mark call me, which he did. My first question to him was if the Office of Emergency Services and the National Guard were contacted because of the potential magnitude of the situation and he said he would pass on my suggestions to the powers above. For the next three days, I called and/or spoke with city staff 13 times to monitor the situation.
I received no phone call from the city manager on my home phone or the cell phone that I keep with me at all times regarding the meeting in question.
At 10 p.m., I received a call from my wife, who had been working in Roseville assisting a friend, that she could not get into Lincoln because police were not allowing people in. At the same time, I received communications from a law enforcement officer and other fire personnel that the potential area of devastation was a five-mile radius of the tanker site and that I should leave the city immediately. As it was my and my wife’s desire to be together, I left to be with her.
The larger issue is Jeeves’ refusal to report the whole story or attempt to speak with me to get a complete account of what I was doing during that time. I have encountered Kathy Dorsey (Jeeves) at the News Messenger offices since then and at no time was I asked where I was or what I was doing on that day. I would have hoped for more even-handed reporting on the issue and not just insinuation.
Stan Nader, Lincoln